The Superior FAF Experience Mod

I will get interested when veterancy is removed.

It is great to see so much effort being put into the game, whether that is through a mod or otherwise ๐Ÿ™‚

But I wish you followed the best practices with regards to hooking existing Lua code. At the moment instead of hooking the mod overrides several critical files / classes, such as:

  • /lua/sim/unit.lua and /lua/defaultunits.lua, overwriting the code basis that all units rely on
  • /lua/sim/defaultprojectiles.lua and /lua/defaultantiprojectiles.lua, overwriting the code basis that a lot of projectiles rely on
  • /lua/ui/game/unitview.lua, overwriting the code of the unit info as you hover over a unit and all interactions with it
  • /lua/ui/game/construction.lua, overwriting the code of the construction menu and all interactions with it

As a consequence, if we'd make any change to any of these files / classes then your mod will simply overwrite them. Other files / classes may rely on those changes, and error out accordingly.

One such example is the spread attack alternative, which adds one function to the unit class. That function would not exist in your mod. And therefore the code would error out. That change will be released on the 24th, removing the old spread attack implementation. And the alternative won't work in your mod the way it is setup now.

As an example, take the second item of the modification-resources channel on Discord:

And specifically:

Which explains you exactly how to do it, along with some good fashioned humor of Balthazar. It is a good read, even for those that are not into making mods ๐Ÿ™‚

As you mention copyrights at the end of your post - the repository has no license. Some files have a specific header indicating a license, such as with the navigational mesh. When no such license exists the default copyright laws apply, which you can read about here:

Some of the files that you copied from top to bottom are taken from the repository. You technically don't have the rights to distribute those through the vault. To quote the license you agree on when uploading content to the vault:

In particular, you represent and warrant that the User Generated Content was originally created by you (or, with respect to a User Generated Content to which others contributed besides you, by you and the other contributors, and in such case that you have the right to submit such content on behalf of those other contributors).

You can read the vault rules / license here:

I don't mind that you're taking files that I worked on. The moral of my response however is to encourage you to properly hook the files you're working with. That way your mod will not break the game starting on the 24th of August. And your mod will only contain the code that it needs to function, reducing the copyright issues mentioned above to a minimum.

And with all of that said - I'd love to know how you fixed beam weapons occasionally missing a target. A lot of attempts have been made in the past and none of them really fixed the problem ๐Ÿ™‚

A work of art is never finished, merely abandoned

I see Fixed in Equilibrium, I like.

Shame for the attitude.

Could you eventually consider making eq-like changelogs?

11

I appreciate all of the work that has gone into the mod and I hope some of the bug fixes (like the beam weapons missing targets) and perhaps some features can be implemented into the base game version. However, I'm sad to see so much slander directed at the Balance team even if you disagree with the changes we've made over the past years. I can only hope you will be open to working in a civilized manner with the existing developers on improving the base game as well. A lot of the bug fixes and some features could have been easily implemented into the base game if you had engaged in a productive discussion or simply made contributions on GitHub.

This post is deleted!

@tagada said in The Superior FAF Experience Mod:

I appreciate all of the work that has gone into the mod and I hope some of the bug fixes (like the beam weapons missing targets) and perhaps some features can be implemented into the base game version. However, I'm sad to see so much slander directed at the Balance team even if you disagree with the changes we've made over the past years. I can only hope you will be open to working in a civilized manner with the existing developers on improving the base game as well. A lot of the bug fixes and some features could have been easily implemented into the base game if you had engaged in a productive discussion or simply made contributions on GitHub.

I would argue there are better ways to go about it, but Drews attitude is a direct reflection of the crap that gets slung at him anytime he posts. Drew pokes the bear with 14 paragraphs, everyone else mocks your requests due to a lack of "skill expression". It's one and the same.

With that being said, I think you'd find Drew & Drunken indispensable if you worked together. I've seen first hand how incredibly boring, mind numbing, and thankless the job of coding and balancing can be.

Any individual who spends dozens of hours of their personal time on things like this obviously care about the game and the future of it.

His "poking the bear" is either insulting everybody for making changes for their friends (unlike him), ignoring the people (unlike him), being unprofessional (unlike him), or some other "we're literally like the elves in lotr and they're the orcs" variation.

The last time drew got told he has a skill issue is when he said first bomber isn't a problem because you can simply look at the score to see someone opened with an air factory several years ago.

I would just like to say nuke is worthless now and the balance team does a really bad job!

I don't feel that "originalist" approach when looking at the balance changes, at all.
Beetles are pushed even further to a gimmick role. Naval missiles are made homing for some insane reason, there's a reason T2 MML missiles are no longer homing in vanilla FA. GC is made way harder to kill with T3 if you don't have it in one big clump. Inexplicable random UEF navy buffs. Stuff like "nerf arty", "buff strats vs shields", "eco nerf", "T2 shield nerf" ringing of dualgap syndrome. Glossing over T2 and T3 land "rebalance". Proposed counterintuitive "damage splitting" mechanic for TMLs. Walled PD being considered an issue. None of this sounds good to me.

*The Fatboy is bigger, stronger, more expensive, can build units on the go, with a minimum range on its main guns to give it a new weak point.

@ComradeStryker I feel like some of the UEF fixes you want are live here

It makes a lot of sense that the guy who has an issue with the balance team and feels the need to make his own balance mod is also the guy who has an issue with the English language and feels the need to invent his own English word.

@archsimkat said in The Superior FAF Experience Mod:

It makes a lot of sense that the guy who has an issue with the balance team and feels the need to make his own balance mod is also the guy who has an issue with the English language and feels the need to invent his own English word.

You here to throw offenses?

I'm here to watch things fall.

I'm a fan of a lot of the changes you've mentioned and where you're aiming them to go.
I also like some cool features and QoL changes you've made.

Beetle 'rework', navy and anti-navy changes, GC HP drain - all that sounds cool.
Transport speed based on unit numbers - that is interesting and something I look forward to.

Hoverbombing?
T2/T3 mex advantages?
Bigger Fatboy?! ๐Ÿ˜„
Frigates and Battleships with anti-sub weaponry?!

So much! Where do I start?!

Though, before I get ahead of myself, I'll have to take a deep look at the mod.
That all being said:


I am saddened by the Flak you are throwing at the Balance team, though.
They rework units and structures to better fit the overall sense of the game.

For some, changes are -at first- questionable, but given time,
we can start to understand why those changes were made.
All changes are made for the betterment of the 'health' of the game.

If I may also say, the Balance team has been quite transparent with all the changes they've made lately.
What they're aiming to change, how they're changing it, and most importantly - Why they're aiming to change what they're changing.

The other day, @TheWheelie took 2 or 3 hours out of his time to walk us through the Balance Changes and each individual reason for them.
@SpikeyNoob has been very informative about the changes, too.
And the work that @Jip has made. Oh my - where can one start?!

And the entire FAF community is basically run by volunteers. We'd be wise to keep that in mind.
I mean, can we imagine if the devs walked out? The Balance Team? The Promotional Team? etc.

FAF would die out in a week, tops.
There would be no one to maintain the servers; firstly.
No one to update the client, no one to fix bugs, no one to adjust overpowered or underused units and structures, and no one to promote the game.

We only have one FAF... we should take care of it, no?
๐Ÿ™‚


~ Stryker

( อกยฐ อœส– อกยฐ)

Im not sure why i see hate and insults in this thread. Im so happy that i can see such huge waves of content and efforts streaming into my favourite game. Drew did excellent job. Though it may not be balanced the way ftx wants or any other proper 2k player opinion but it is a mod for that reason. You can treat it as LOUD .

"Good luck and a safe landing commanders!"

Nobody dislikes someone creating a mod like this, but if you blame an entire faf team of corruption then its drew that started the insults. It shouldnt be very surprising then that some people respond in kind since he set the tone of the topic. Nobody likes to be insulted for their volunteer work.

@thewheelie said in The Superior FAF Experience Mod:

Nobody dislikes someone creating a mod like this, but if you blame an entire faf team of corruption then its drew that started the insults. It shouldnt be very surprising then that some people respond in kind since he set the tone of the topic. Nobody likes to be insulted for their volunteer work.

I agree, but Drew has also spent hours (and years) trying to help out with things people have mentioned, or that he thought would help the community, without being on the balance team. I think both sides would benefit from a conversation. The mobile factory fixes, Sera T2 PD, fatboy upgrades, etc are legit. Hell, even the animations on the Megalith are amazing. He's not trying to reinvent the wheel.

Someone mentioned his nerfs/buffs as a "dualgap syndrome". I honestly would prefer watching gap games (since I can't stand the map) where 90% of games aren't decided on which side built a T4 first, regardless if they didn't have map control, navy, nor air, yet come back and win a 2v6. I thought Boi's were nerfed for a similar reason.

He also would get some of his github PRs rejected while also given the reason for said rejections and then proceed to rename all his PRs โ€œblaโ€ as a result of it. Combine it with the general โ€œno stealingโ€ message posted here and you kinda get the idea that there was no ultimate intent of helping the community unless it was directly 1 dudeโ€™s specific vision.

Iโ€™m also fairly certain the first side to build a t4 is pretty irrelevant to dual gap, game wins are much more associated with nuke or t3 arty or game enders than an emergency ML or chicken to hold a push.

The idea that balance should account for maps like Dualgap that by design favour ecoing up to the first base-killing tool you can launch from your own base is exactly what I meant by "dualgap syndrome".

  1. Tone criticisms from people who tend to be thin on common courtesy is a little incongruous. We can all seek to be more respectful, all the time.

  2. The job of the balance team for any game is never easy; for FaF, when it's a team of volunteers without corporate authority, the job is all that much harder. When things tend to devolve into a shitfight (see #1) it's harder still. I like to keep all that in mind before I do a mindread on anyone's motives.

  3. @Evildrew I'll speak for myself and say that I am genuinely interested in your methodology for how you arrived at these changes.

  4. There's always virtue to experimentation, even if there's likely a few too many changes here to approach methodically. Most interesting things start out as a compost heap (and I gotta take a look at these mobile factories).